In a power transmission or distribution network, switching apparatuses are incorporated into the network to provide automatic protection in response to abnormal load conditions or to permit opening or closing (switching) of sections of the network. The switching apparatus may therefore be called upon to perform a number of different operations such as interruption of terminal faults or short line faults, interruption of small inductive currents, interruption of capacitive currents, out-of-phase switching or no-load switching, all of which operations are well known to a person skilled in the art.
In switching apparatuses the actual opening or closing operation is carried out by two contacts where normally one is stationary and the other is mobile. The mobile contact is operated by an operating device which comprises an actuator and a mechanism, where said mechanism operatively connects the actuator to the mobile contact.
Actuators of known operating devices for medium and high voltage switches and circuit breakers are of the spring operated, the hydraulic or the electromagnetic type. In the following, operating devices will be described operating a circuit breaker but similar known operating devices may also operate switches.
A spring operated actuator, or spring drive unit as it is also called, generally uses two springs for operating the circuit breaker; an opening spring for opening the circuit breaker and a closing spring for closing the circuit breaker and reloading the opening spring. Instead of just one spring for each one of the opening spring and the closing spring, sometimes a set of springs may be used for each one of the opening spring and the closing spring. For example, such a set of springs may include a small spring arranged inside a larger spring or two springs arranged in parallel, side by side. In the following, it should be understood that when reference is made to the spring of the respective opening spring and the closing spring, such a spring could include a set of springs. Another mechanism converts the motion of the springs into a translation movement of the mobile contact. In its closed position in a network the mobile contact and the stationary contact of the circuit breaker are in contact with each other and the opening spring and the closing spring of the operating device are charged. Upon an opening command the opening spring opens the circuit breaker, separating the contacts. Upon a closing command the closing spring closes the circuit breaker and, at the same time, charges the opening spring. The opening spring is now ready to perform a second opening operation if necessary. When the closing spring has closed the circuit breaker, the electrical motor in the operating device recharges the closing spring. This recharging operation takes several seconds.
Illustrative examples of spring operated actuators for a circuit breaker can be found e.g. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,877, U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,258, U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,255, U.S. Pat. No. 6,444,934 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,667,452.
At actuation of the switching apparatus, the moving contact part thereof is brought to a very high speed in order to break the current as fast as possible. At the end part of the movement it is important to decelerate the movement to avoid impact shocks. Therefore actuators of the kind in question normally are equipped with some kind of dampers to slow down the speed of the moving contact at the end of its movement. One damper is provided for the opening and one for the closing. Normally the dampers are linear with a piston operating in a hydraulic cylinder.
Such a damper is space-consuming and requires a plurality of components to be connected to the drive mechanism of the actuator.
With the term “end” related to a helical torsion spring is in this application meant the end of the spring material, i.e. the end in the direction of the spring helix. For the ends in the axial direction the term “axial end” is used.